Nichole Morris's main research interests are in human factors of transportation safety, especially as it relates to in-vehicle technologies, pedestrian and non-motorist safety, safety data collection, gender biases in trauma care, and work-zone safety. Her most recent research has examined interactions between drivers and automated vehicles, pedestrian safety programs, work-zone intrusion mitigation and documentation, rural intersection designs, police pursuits, vehicle collision detection and warnings with non-motorist road users, and in-vehicle displays for snowplow lane guidance. Her previous work examined crash data collection, in-vehicle support systems for at-risk road users, in-vehicle messaging systems, connected vehicles warning systems, stakeholder support for automated speed enforcement, and lane-departure warning systems.
Morris received a PhD in psychology (human factors) from Wichita State University in 2011. She is a research associate professor and the director of the Human Factors Safety Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Her other appointments include: associate graduate faculty, Infrastructure and Environmental Systems, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; graduate faculty, Human Factors and Ergonomics, College of Design, University of Minnesota; adjunct assistant professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota; adjunct assistant professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.